The international ballet festival is one of the most significant events in the ballet season, drawing ballet-lovers from all over the world to St Petersburg. The main strategy of the festival is to attract stars of world ballet to Russia’s cultural capital. Regular participants in the festival include Mariinsky Theatre stars Diana Vishneva, Ulyana Lopatkina, Alina Somova, Viktoria Teryoshkina, Yekaterina Kondaurova, Igor Zelensky, Leonid Sarafanov, Andrian Fadeyev and Vladimir Shklyarov. Since it was established, the Mariinsky international ballet festival has seen performances by such internationally acclaimed stars as Vladimir Malakhov, Agnès Letestu, Aurélie Dupont, Mathieu Ganio, Roberto Bolle, Maria Kowroski, Manuel Legris, Alina Cojocaru, Johan Kobborg, Paloma Herrera, Nikolai Tsiskaridze and Svetlana Zakharova at the theatre. In line with tradition, each festival opens with a ballet premiere and it concludes with a gala concert featuring stars of international ballet. The XI International Ballet Festival Mariinsky will run from 14 to 24 April.

The international ballet festival is one of the most significant events in the ballet season, drawing ballet-lovers from all over the world to St Petersburg. The main strategy of the festival is to attract stars of world ballet to Russia’s cultural capital. Regular participants in the festival include Mariinsky Theatre stars Diana Vishneva, Ulyana Lopatkina, Alina Somova, Viktoria Teryoshkina, Yekaterina Kondaurova, Igor Zelensky, Leonid Sarafanov, Andrian Fadeyev and Vladimir Shklyarov. Since it was established, the Mariinsky international ballet festival has seen performances by such internationally acclaimed stars as Vladimir Malakhov, Agnès Letestu, Aurélie Dupont, Mathieu Ganio, Roberto Bolle, Maria Kowroski, Manuel Legris, Alina Cojocaru, Johan Kobborg, Paloma Herrera, Nikolai Tsiskaridze and Svetlana Zakharova at the theatre. In line with tradition, each festival opens with a ballet premiere and it concludes with a gala concert featuring stars of international ballet. The XI International Ballet Festival Mariinsky will run from 14 to 24 April.

About Mariinsky
Ballet Festivals

The International Ballet Festival Mariinsky was
launched in 2001. The Festival‘s main aim is to draw the stars of world ballet
to Russia‘s cultural capital. The Mariinsky Ballet
Company is known well beyond St Petersburg, though guest
appearances by renowned illustrious foreign dancers and companies were very rare
prior to the Mariinsky Ballet Festival.

Each year the Mariinsky Ballet Festival brings together the
world‘s best dancers and the playbill lists a programme of works performed by
various ballet companies. Since the founding of the Festival, the theatre's
stage has witnessed performances by such internationally acclaimed ballet
dancers as Vladimir Malakhov, Agnes Letestu, Aurelie Dupont,
Matthieu Ganio, Roberto Bolle, Maria Kowroski, Manuel Legris, Alina Cojocaru,
Johan Kobborg,
Paloma Herrera, Nikolai Tsiskaridze and Svetlana Zakharova. In line with tradition, the Mariinsky Theatre will present a premiere at the opening of the Festival, which will
conclude with a grand gala concert by stars of world
ballet.

All of the stars of the Mariinsky Ballet Company and seven magnificent guest soloists, two premieres and a grandiose gala concert – this is what the XI International Ballet Festival MARIINSKY promises at the theatre from 14 to 24 April.
On 14, 15 and 22 April the Mariinsky Ballet Company will be staging premiere performances of Angelin Preljocaj’s ballet Le Parc which is being rehearsed by three couples – Diana Vishneva and Konstantin Zverev, Viktoria Teryoshkina and Alexander Sergeyev and Yekaterina Kondaurova and Yuri Smekalov. Taking refined and beautiful music by Mozart, the choreographer has created a ballet about the strategy of courting, capturing in three stage acts the merciless chess-like game of passion that culminates in the emergence of true love. When creating Le Parc in 1994, Preljocaj turned to French literature of the 17th and 18th centuries that has bequeathed to us such a rich legacy of techniques and rules for the game of love.
Preljocaj has commented on his idea for the ballet saying that “From La Princesse de Clèves to Les Liaisons dangereuses, and not forgetting Mademoiselle de Scudéry’s Carte de Tendre – all of these works were created before we were born, and they all created some magical ritual out of passionate love that makes people forget about life and the everyday.”
Noémie Perlov, a coach and Preljocaj’s assistant, has been working with the Mariinsky Ballet Company, and she has been helped by the Mariinsky Theatre’s coaches Islom Baimuradov, Maxim Khrebtov and Vanda Lubkovskaya. Preljocaj, who began rehearsals in January, will be returning to St Petersburg on the eve of the premiere in order to complete preparations for the production.
On 19 April at an evening of ballets to music by Frédéric Chopin there will be yet another festival premiere – the one-act ballet Without by renowned choreographer and dancer Benjamin Millepied to music from études and preludes by Frédéric Chopin. The choreographer has defined the genre of the ballet as “concert dances for ten soloists.” Millepied, who has frequently worked to great acclaim in the USA, won international acclaim following the release of Darren Aronofsky’s film Black Swan in which he was partnered by Natalie Portman. The choreographer’s ballet Without was created in 2008 for New York City Ballet.
The Russian premiere is being rehearsed by Maria Shirinkina and Vladimir Shklyarov, Denis and Anastasia Matvienko, Anastasia Nikitina and Anton Korsakov, Yana Selina and Igor Kolb, Olesya Novikova and Maxim Zyuzin and Daria Pavlenko and Andrei Yermakov.
Benjamin Millepied’s collaboration with the Mariinsky Theatre will continue next season when the choreographer will stage a new ballet for the company.
In addition to Without, the programme for 19 April also includes two one-act ballets to music by Frédéric Chopin: Chopiniana (choreography by Michel Fokine) featuring Yekaterina Osmolkina, Yana Selina, Xenia Ostreikovskaya and Alexander Parish and In the Night (choreography by Jerome Robbins) featuring Ulyana Lopatkina, Alina Somova, Yevgeny Ivanchenko and Danila Korsuntsev.
Duets will play a prominent role at the festival. 16 April will see the duet of Roberta Marquez of London’s Royal Ballet and Vladimir Shklyarov, recently appointed Principal Dancer of the Mariinsky Ballet Company. On 17 April Yekaterina Kondaurova will be performing the role of Odette-Odile in Swan Lake with David Hallberg from American Ballet Theatre. Ashley Bouder of New York City Ballet and Denis Matvienko will be performing in Don Quixote on 18 April. The performance of The Sleeping Beauty on 20 April features performances by Viktoria Teryoshkina and Friedemann Vogel of the Stuttgart Ballet. On 21 April Romeo and Juliet will see performances by Olesya Novikova and Yevgeny Ivanchenko. Towards the close of the festival on 23 April, Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg of London’s Royal Ballet will be performing in Giselle.
During the festival Grigory Chicherin, Principal Coach at the National Ballet Academy in Amsterdam, will give a master-class for the Mariinsky Ballet Company and the guest artists.
The festival will come to a close on 24 April with a grand gala concert, also featuring Viengsay Valdés from the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. In the first half of the concert she will perform the role of Carmen in Carmen-Suite opposite Ilya Kuznetsov and Yevgeny Ivanchenko.
The festival is being run with support from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
VTB is the principal sponsor of the XI International Ballet Festival MARIINSKY
The Astoria is the recommended hotel for the festival’s guests